HEALTHCARE workers are being assaulted at double the rate they were 10 years ago, making assault the second leading cause of hospitalisation for doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals injured at work.
In the 10 years to the end of June, 2025, assault moved from the fourth leading cause of hospitalisation for health professionals injured at work, to second, compared with seventh for the general population.
The most common cause of workplace injuries that landed doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals in hospital were falls.
The rate of injury hospitalisations was the same across men and women, however, data shows that assault accounts for a much higher proportion of injury-related hospital stays for women working in the health care and social assistance industries, at 27 per cent in 2021-22, compared with 7 per cent among men.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report on injury hospitalisations among health workers released today (July 22) is based on analysis of the National Hospital Morbidity Database, Safe Work Australia and Australian Bureau of Statistics data, as well as other studies.
"Increasingly, workplace violence and harassment is recognised as a major cause of injury among health care workers, with higher rates of work-related violence than many other industries," the report says.
It looks at injuries among healthcare workers that occurred while working, and were serious enough to result in an admission to hospital, over a 10-year period from 2015-16 to 2024-25.
In 2024-25, there were 126 hospital admissions of healthcare workers assaulted at work, accounting for 15 per cent for all types of injuries that resulted in an admission, compared with the general population for which assault accounted for just 3.8 per cent of hospital admissions.
A more detailed analysis of injury types revealed that the leading cause of injury was a fall (on the same level, from tripping) followed by overexertion and strenuous or repetitive movements, then assault by bodily force, followed by falls (on the same level, from slipping), then a second assault category - hit, struck, kicked, twisted, bitten or scratched by another person.
It follows the release of data during a parliamentary inquiry revealing almost 400 cases of physical aggression at the Hunter's Calvary Mater Hospital in five years.
The Mater data emerged through the parliamentary inquiry into the hospital's mould and maintenance scandal.
It showed almost half the 388 incidents of physical aggression at the Mater (2021 to 2025), were by patients in the psychiatric emergency department.
About 230 of those recorded incidents involved physical and verbal aggression.
Hospital staff and health unions have raised serious concerns about a rise in physical assaults on staff in public hospitals with 88 per cent of nurses and midwives surveyed on the issue saying they had experienced or witnessed violence in the last year.
That report, titled Occupational Violence has no place in my workplace from the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association (NSWNMA), identified public sector staff as most at risk.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park says the state government has established a taskforce to advise on improving safety for staff, patients and visitors in the public health system.
The Newcastle Herald has asked the minister's office to provide figures on aggression incidents in Hunter hospitals, but was referred to Hunter New England Health, which said the information was not publicly available.
Today's AIHW report says its analysis is based on data provided by states and territories.
On another occasion, in response to a 2024 Newcastle Herald application under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009, which spells out the public's legally enforceable right to access government records and documents, Hunter New England Health said there were almost 2000 assaults on staff in the four years to the end of 2023.
Those figures include all types of assaults, not just those that resulted in a hospital stay. Requests for a more detailed explanation or characterisation of those figures was refused on the basis of privacy.
